By Jeannette Franks, PhD
We all experience anxiety—worrying about the future is part of being human and helps us plan ahead and make better decisions. Some anxiety is normal and even productive. However, when anxiety becomes disruptive and disabling to a person’s life, it is considered an unhealthy psychiatric disorder.
As many as one quarter of all people experience anxiety to an unhealthy extent, and older people can be at particular risk. Seniors may experience more troublesome anxiety than other age groups for several reasons: they experience more losses, suffer from more pain and chronic conditions, are often on multiple medications that might exacerbate anxiety, and have confounding ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease or depression.
This article continues at Elderly Anxiety Disorders